A major emergency is under way in Newcastle with a bulk carrier ship breaking its mooring and running aground 20 metres off a beach this morning.

At least two other ships are at risk of running aground with their anchors struggling to keep them from drifting.

A rescue operation is in full swing with three helicopters airlifting the crew off the stricken vessel.

So far, nine of the 21 crew have been rescued. The captain is believed to still be on board.

"There are now several ships reporting difficulties," said a spokeswoman for the Federal Maritime Minister, De-Anne Kelly.

"The Coral Emerald is about 2.8 nautical miles offshore and is now reporting its anchor is dragging due to the swell.

"Another ship, the Sea Confidence, is a lot closer to the beach. It's dropped its anchor but is having trouble holding.

"It's less than a nautical mile off Stockton Beach."

A NSW Maritime Authority spokewoman said: "The rescue effort by helicopter has begun, and eight or nine crew are now off the ship."

"We're bound by the weather, so we don't really have an estimation on how long the rescue will take. It will be done as soon as can be safely possible."

The crew were airlifted two at a time and brought to a makeshift operation centre at the Nobbys Beach Surf Club where immigration officials are processing the rescued crew members, who are from The Philippines.

Four surf club jet-skis were being used in the rough seas in case any of the remaining crew went overboard.

Authorities are frantically working to avert a potentially major environmental disaster as the ship, the Pasha Bulker, threatens to move closer towards Nobbys Beach, near the Newcastle Baths.

At the time, she said the ship was "balancing just on the reef'' between 50 and 100 metres off the beach. It has since been pushed by the high tide to about 20 metres off the beach.

Massive waves are crashing into and over the ship, with the bow swinging towards the beach.

A local resident said it was like nothing he had seen before.

"It's right between the flags where people usually swim and there's this massive ship,'' he said.

"There were people everywhere. As word got out people started coming from everywhere - there were hundreds. Driving out, the number of cars going in to have a sticky was amazing. There were police everywhere, choppers as well.''

The resident said people can swim out further than where the ship is aground.

"The waves were actually going over the top. The conditions were horrible, if they were out on the deck they would have been washed away,'' he said, referring to the crew.

The Pasha Bulker, a 225-metre long coal ship built last year, has 700 tonnes of heavy fuel and 34 tonnes of diesel on board.

It does not have any coal on board. It had been due to pick up a load of 68,000 tonnes of coal on June 12.

Jim Sullivan, the news director of local TV station NBN, told Sky News: "The wind is extremely strong here. You can hardly stand up.''

He said gales, surf and tide were pushing the ship further into the beach and within a few hours, he said the crew would "just about be able to walk off''.

Ships are normally anchored two to five kilometres off the coast but the wild weather, including winds of more than 100 kilometres an hour, had caused it to break its moorings.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Maritime said the main concern was the environmental aspect of the accident.

"The Australian Maritime Safety Authority are on standby if there is a pollution report, which there hasn't been at this stage. There is a lot of fuel; that's the risk," she said.

A number of ambulances are in Nobbys car park waiting to treat crew if necessary when they are brought from the ship.

The latest news is that the weather has abated with the wind backing to the West and some glimpses of blue sky. That will help the other ships that are experiencing difficulties and reduce damage to the PB. It has also allowed helicopter operations to re-commence.

The Master or the PB has made the decision to abandon ship and they have removed 50% of the crew.

Aparrently there were 2 other vessels in trouble with a tug enroute to one of them.

hello i am in sydney jsut got home from work windy and wet outside,mmmm i hope we dont have another selendang ayu on out hands,but hopefully she wont break up???if the storm will abate she should be ok,it looks to be quite steady on the beach,we will wait and see.cheers

does nobody received a weather forecast in the area?i don't understand it what happened.i don't see on the pictures any dropped anchor from the lauritzen bulker.if the engine is not ready and the moorings break,the crew should at least try to drop an anchor as an emergency manoeuvre.looks like a perfect seamanship again.....

Hi AllI cannot understand it. There were weather warnings on the media over the last few days. It was not a sudden thing. I understand there were 56 ships on the anchorage. 45 of them moved out to sea when the warnings were issued. The remainder were still at the anchorage when the storm struck. What really happened here is anybodys guess! The other two vessels in trouble Sea Confidence & Betis were towed away from the coastline.

i have now a stupid question:does the mv "pasha bulker" broke her lines at the jetty or was she on anchor at the roads?anyway,on the pictures and the video i saw,both anchors were up.maybe the captain go the order to save some gasoil and luboil and to stay instead to drift in the bad weather...you never know in these days.now they lost probably the vessel.but normally the australian authorities are not so sleepy...brgds mooringman

Pasha Bulker was one of more than 60 ships at anchor off the coast of Newcastle awaiting her turn to berth and load coal. All ships received a warning from the Harbour Master the night before of the storm conditions approaching and where advised to retrieve their anchors and head out to sea. Apparently 11 ships did not heed this advice and remained at anchor, the Pasha Bulker being one of them.

From what I have seen (and this is my speculation) the Pasha Bulker waited too long to retrieve her anchor and whilst trying to do so and get underway she appears to have been unable to manouevre away from the beach, it appears the wind and waves got hold of her before she could get any real momentum up to enable her to turn.

I was just reading that she apparently dumped her water ballast before trying to move out to sea, and it`s now being said that had they not done this, the prop would have had more effect, as it would have been sitting further underwater still, thus giving more propulsion. The swells were up to 18 metres, so maybe they had no chance anyway.At least there were no casualties, thanks to the skill of the rescuers.